1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a printing apparatus.
2. Related Art
A printing apparatus that imparts an ink to print on a sheet-shaped recording medium having flexibility has been employed in the related art (for example, see JP-A-2012-20467). The printing apparatus described JP-A-2012-20467 includes a transportation mechanism that transports a recording medium, a head unit that applies the ink onto the transported recording medium, and a movement mechanism (driving source) that moves the head unit with respect to the recording medium.
In the printing apparatus described in JP-A-2012-20467, although depending on the use environment (for example, humidity is relatively high and the like), a portion of the recording medium may be inadvertently warped (loosened) during the process of transporting the recording medium. In a case where the aforementioned warpage occurs when performing printing onto the recording medium, if the head unit moves toward the recording medium, the head unit and the warped portion of the recording medium interfere with each other, that is, collide with each other. As a result, there has been a problem that retention (jamming) of the recording medium occurs so as to cause the head unit to be held in suspension in its integrity. In a case where the suspension state of the head unit continues for a relatively long period (for example, one to two hours), clogging occurs in a nozzle port of the head unit that ejects the ink such that the head unit no longer becomes serviceable, thereby forcing a replacement of the head unit.